Lucky13S

**I want your opinions on what course of action I should take. Meet with the shop owner and technician, stop the payment now or break off communication with them and take them to court.**

Recently it rained and the front passenger carpet got wet. I brought the car to the shop I had been using and they could not figure out what was wrong with it. I brought it to them twice and after the second time I started to look around for another shop in the area. I decided to go with a highly recommended place also near me and they immediately attempted to fix the issue by cleaning out the drain tubes. I thought great at least they think they know what the issue is. Unfortunately this did not fix the issue and the next time it rained the carpet got wet again.

I bring the car back in and they started to “dig into it” and found what they think is the issue; a rubber grommet coming from the firewall. They ordered the part to “fix it”. I put that in quotations because it hasn’t rained and I just got the car back last night so I can’t say for sure if this fixed it. The charge for cleaning out the drain tubes was 1 hour of labor which is $137 at this shop. The cost of the rubber grommet fix was 3.5 hours of labor, the part and taxes which came out to $540. That in my opinion is a whole lot of money for this fix but I just wanted it fixed. They are roughly $40 more an hour than my other shop was but if they could fix my problem and the other shop couldn’t then that’s all that mattered to me.

My issues come in when I got the car back last night. The vent was not properly put back together and the dash had GOUGES and SCRATCHES everywhere. As you can see in the pictures the vent was not clipped in. They pulled the car around back and clipped the vent back in but the **** itself barely turns now and the trim does not line up at the bottom. I took up the issue up with the man at the front desk and he said he would have the owner call me tomorrow.

This morning the owner calls me and he basically denied his technician did anything wrong from the start. He told me his tech has over 30 years of experience and would never scratch anyone’s dash. He said “we don’t use hacksaws and screwdrivers to get into something like a vent” to which I responded I don’t care how you get in there, my dash is scratched now. I also pointed out to him that his technician returned my car to me with the vent not being put back together correctly or functioning properly to which he has no response. He told me the technician said the scratches were already there when I brought the car back in the second time. The owner asked me to come into the shop so that they can show me the process which they used to do the repair. I don’t see what good that is going to do.

I also want to point out that there is now a crack in the dash close to the windshield. I’m not sure if I have pictures of that exact spot before I brought the car into them for repairs but I do have pictures of the vent and right pillar side of the dash before they worked on it. They also put three bigger scratches in my dash on the left side when they went to go do an inspection and remove the previous sticker. I for whatever reason let that slide when I probably should have said something right then.

My question is what would you guys recommend I do? I spoke with my wife’s old service manager that she used to work with and he told me not to stop payment but to go about this the right way. Go in next week and see what they offer me, if anything, and go from there. He said if I stop payment on the work they did yesterday then I am also in the wrong. The owner of this shop called me while I was driving so the entire call got recorded on my dash cam which in my state I can legally use if this ever goes to court.

Thankfully through all of this with me using a wet vac and fans there is zero mildew smell at all which is what I was most worried about because the last thing I wanted to do was have to replace carpet. I dried it out completely both times it got wet so there are no issues there.

The car has only 15,000 miles on it and now I’m considering selling it. The damage to the dash devalues the car but it is in excellent condition otherwise which is why these gouges and scratches bother me so much. Being really busy with work right now I simply don’t have the time to deal with stuff like this so I’m most likely going to get something like a new Q50 since that will obviously come with a warranty. Any suggestions on what route I should take with this would be appreciated.

teahead

Get a quote to get your dash replaced and take them to small claims court.

Unfortunately, that dash job may exceed the small claims limitation of what...$2500?

Better than nothing.

BULL

As a mechanic and owner of a G37 I have to say that these dashes are our worst nightmare, I for once ALWAYS inform the customer of the main issue with these cars and it's the dash. It's a documented issue and mileage doesnt seem to spare the issue, neither is keeping it garage kept. I found one at a yard last week and even using kid gloves I still did some noticeable damage, the defrost vent is almost always the hardest one to not mess up.
I have to agree with you on the pass vent, that was a hack especially since your can clip it back together.

Did they remove the dash? I dont know but it sure looks like they tried. Unfortunately with these issues is that you're limited to what you can do.

They're not going to replace the dash as a new one would cost $1k+
They're going to try to justify anything

It's possible they discount total price to cover the damage or get a mobile guy to "repair it" with some filler and a paint brush.

The dash's are **** man, any bit of work you go try to attempt will 90% of the time result in a scrape, indentation or peeling of the layer.

slartibartfast

iTrader: (7)

The firewall grommet replacement price seems reasonable, it's a real bear to get to it.

Try all reasonable means to get the shop to make good on the damaged dash. If they can't or won't, then you have to take legal action.

Conboss

Oh goodness that's hideous...

I tried taking the door panel off a couple weeks ago, and of course *I* screwed up my door trim. Big whoop, the pry bar was a bad idea. These trim panels are soft, granted mine is a 2009 with 164Km on the clock. Regardless, I hope something can get sorted out!